Thursday, July 3, 2014

One third of adults with dyslexia report they were physically abused during their childhood, The Impact of Sexual Abuse Committed by a Child on Mental Health in Adulthood

One third of adults with dyslexia report they were physically abused during their childhood 7/3/14
TORONTO, ON – Adults who have dyslexia are much more likely to report they were physically abused before they turned 18 than their peers without dyslexia, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.

Thirty-five per cent of adults with dyslexia report they were physically abused before they turned 18. In contrast, seven per cent of those without dyslexia reported that they had experienced childhood physical abuse.

The Impact of Sexual Abuse Committed by a Child on Mental Health in Adulthood
Brian Allen, Alexandra Tellez, Amy Wevodau, Carol L. Woods, Amy Percosky
J Interpers Violence August 2014 vol. 29 no. 12 2257-2272
Abstract
Numerous research studies document the negative mental health outcomes associated with the experience of childhood sexual abuse. In addition, factors such as one’s relationship with the perpetrator and the severity of the abuse predict the likelihood of future mental health problems. Less attention, however, has focused on the age of the perpetrator, and recent years have seen an increased interest in children who display sexual behavior problems. College students completed measures of mental health functioning and retrospective reports of maltreatment histories. Participants were categorized as abused by an adult (n = 48), teenager (n = 39), or another child (n = 37), and non-abused (n = 219). Victims of abuse, regardless of perpetrator age, displayed higher levels of mental health problems than non-abused participants. There were no differences between the abused groups on any of the mental health outcomes; however, individuals who were abused by other children were less likely to label their experiences as abuse.
http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/29/12/2257.abstract
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